Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-10-05
ST. LOUIS.

That the encampment at St. Louis last
week was not the success it might have
been, was certainly rot the fault of the
people of that city, who had done all in
their power to welcome the veterans and
make their stay enjoyable and pleasant
But lowering skies and almost constant
rains from Monday morning till Thursday
evening are apt to dampen the ardor of
even the most enthusiastic, and sadly in
terfered with the week enjoyment. The
crowd was there, and the largest that ever
assembled on similar occasion, and not
less than $4,000 old soldiers, and possibly
even more, met together to renew old
friendships, form new ones, talk over old
times, recount incidents of the war, and
drop sympathetic tear for those who dur
ing the years gone by had joined the
"silent army Illinois alone sent by &C
tual count 1850 old soldiers, Iowa, Ne
braska, Kansas and Miss our each nearly
10000, and the more remote states less
numbers, Wisconsin coming in with fully
900, and distant California nearly the
same number. Tuesday, the day set for
the parade, was drizzly and nasty, and in
hopes of an improvement, an order for a
postponement till the next day was issued,
and on that day, from the hour the line
was formed till the procession broke up
about four hours-it poured about as
hard as it could; but about 10, 900 soldiers
formed in line and marched through the
rain and mud to the sound of numerous
bands and the refrain of Marching
through Georgia" and other patriotic airs,
while forty or fifty thousand more and
crowds of citizens lined the streets of the
parade unmndful of the rain and pro-
tected by rubber coats, umbrellas, etc.
otis an i'll wind that blows nobody any
good" and the dealers in rubber goods
and umbrellas made money and got rid
of their stocks fast Nearly every house
on the line of the march was decorated,
many of them very handsomely, and nu
merous pictures of Lincoln, Grant, Logan
and other noted war heroes looked down
upon the "boys' as they tramped by.
The rain put stop TO the display intend
ed for the evenings, but it was laid out
on magnificent scale, and would un-
doubtedly have presented gorgeous
scene if carried out as intended. The
camps, scattered through the parks OF the
city, were well filled, and were the scenes
of several regimental and brigade re-
unions, among the former being a re-
union of the 29th Wisconsin held at the
Lindell hotel, at which some twenty-five
or thirty comrades were present. Excur-
sions out of the city were at discount,
owing to the weather, though many went
to the National cemetery below the city,
and over / 1000 went to Springfield to pay
visit to the grave of Abraham Lincoln,
among them Gov Rusk with his escort of
oue-armed or one-legged soldiers, of which
were Timme, Harshaw, Jones, Philips,
Hugh Lewis and others. Gen. Fairchild
and his official staff vas escorted by about
100 members of G. g. Washburn post, Of
Madison, about the same number from
Wolcott post, of Milwaukee, and Geo. Ii.
Thomas post, of Chicago, with drum
corps. The Exposition building at ST..
Louis came in for good share of atten-
tion, both the building and the display
being vastly superior to that of Chicago.
The immense bridge that spans the
Mississippi was admired, and many I'M
doubtedly wished themselves in the place
of the owner, Jay Gould, who extracts a
tribute of % cents from each person who
crosses the bridge and $40 for each rail
road car St. Louis is a fine city, well
built up with fine business houses and
many beautiful dwellings, but it is in
most respects inferior TO Chicago and
lacks entirely the hustle and activity of
the latter.
One exhibit at ST. Louis deserves special
mention, not only as magnificent in itself,
but also as illustrating the enterprise of
| the citizens of a part of the country. This
was the display of tropical fruits from
Southern CALIFORNIA;; an entire building
had been rented for the purpose and a
large hall in the upper story was occupied
by five tables, each 200 feet long, loaded
down with apples, pears, peaches, plums,
aprlcOts, grapes, pOmegranates, bananas
and other kinds of fruits Every visitor
received as a free gift all the grapes he
could eat, and other kinds of fruits were
distributed daily among the crowds that
visited the place. Ostriches raised in Cal
ifornia, and eggs, Ichicks and feathers were
also shown. Papers and pamphlets des-
criptive of the country were distributed.
In the Exposition building was exhibit
ed the celebrated painting, "Christ before
filate," by Mukaczy, probably one of the
finest pieces of the painters art ever
shown, The picture is about 20 feet long
by 10 feet in height, and is so life-like
that one almost imaglnes it to be tab
leau, each figure so distinct and true to
life, as if he was ready to step out of the
picture. w. T. r.
I VTohor o, Sopso Evb;h;t NJ 4ho Nnn